Mendocino Co. 12/5/2016 — The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors will receive a visit from California Assemblymember Jim Wood at its regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow, December 6. Wood will give a presentation about “end of the year activities facing Mendocino County and the California 2nd District.” Direction to staff may follow.

The meeting is scheduled to get down to county business after this, with social services, technology, and the Department of Transportation all having prominent places on the agenda.

As is sometimes the case in less controversial times the bulk of the board’s action will be in the “consent calendar” this week. The consent calendar, which is a set of routine and non-controversial items voted on together, and usually approved without discussion.

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Social Services

The board is slated to award an $80,000 contract to Redwood Community Services for an emergency winter shelter. The Mendocino Voice will have more on this item in an upcoming story.

The consent calendar also includes a contract not to exceed $114,456 between the county of Mendocino and Redwood Community Services, to provide wraparound, or extensive family-like services, to youth placed by Mendo Co. into foster care in Lake County in fiscal year 2016-17.

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The Family Resource Network, with Redwood Community Services as its non-profit fiscal agent, is scheduled to receive $61,748 to prevent child abuse through a variety of activities throughout the county. Activities include after-school programs at Laytonville Healthy Start, the bilingual Nuestra Alianza in Willits, the Arbor Youth Resource Center in Ukiah, and the Potter Valley Youth and Community Center.

The board is also slated to approve a contract for North Coast Opportunities in the amount of $57,226 to expand outreach programs and activities for CalFresh, also referred to as food stamps. Target populations are working families, seniors, and people living in remote parts of the county.

The Mendocino County board of supervisors will appoint Naomi Schwartz as a member of the board of the Coast Life Support District, a special health district in the remote parts of Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. The Coast Life Support District has six ambulances that run from Timber Cove in Sonoma to Irish Beach in Mendocino. Schwartz will be appointed because only board incumbents ran for the four open seats.

Technology

A number of tech contracts are also on the agenda, including one with Vision Technology Solutions, to upgrade county websites. This contract is being amended to add $16,195 for some additional services. The county library’s computer system will receive $15,350 worth of upgrades, and the Mendocino County website will receive $945 in “widgets” to customize weather information.

Another item in the consent calendar is a three-part approval for a $6,517.39 undercounter dishwasher for the animal shelter, $6,390 for audio/video upgrades to the board of supervisors chambers, and the addition of $20,625.78 of recording equipment, purchased from B&H on November 16, 2016, to the county’s list of fixed assets.

A discussion and possible action about public, educational, and government access TV fees and services in Mendocino County are scheduled. No details are available at this time.

Also in the consent calendar is approval for the Broadband Alliance to receive approval of a memorandum of understanding regarding its participation in the North Coast Broadband Consortium, with Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties. The Alliance is a non-profit group that advocates for broadband access in rural counties, often by by helping small independent service providers obtain funding from the California Advanced Services Fund. One item on the MOU is for the consortium to “provide unified representation of the interests of the four counties with the major incumbent and potential broadband Internet providers.” The Broadband Alliance and AT&T, the dominant incumbent company in Mendocino County, do not often agree on the details of technology policy.

Dept of Transportation

Howard Dashiell, Director of the Mendocino County Department of Transportation, is asking for authorization to request bids for two projects; he is also asking for greater flexibility in determining seasonal road closures; and $240,000 for geotechnical engineering services.

Dashiell wants to advertise for bids to replace the Rowes Creek Bridge over Rowes Creek on Sherwood Road in Willits and to build a pedestrian bridge over Ten-Mile Creek on Branscomb Road in Laytonville. He is also asking the board to give the County Road Commissioner flexibility regarding seasonal road closures on Ten-Mile Road, from mile marker .18 - 1.68, Navarro Ridge Road from mile marker 8.82 - 13 and Fort Bragg Sherwood Road from mile marker 5.08 - 27.54. Typically, these sections of the road are closed from November 15 to April 15, but Dashiell would like greater discretion to close them during especially inclement weather.

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